


nightmare before christmas

by rosewrought



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Christmas Shopping, Fluff and Humor, M/M, McReyes Secret Snowflake, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, meeting santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 00:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13042764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosewrought/pseuds/rosewrought
Summary: “We should let them go first,” Gabe says quietly, tilting his head back to indicate the father and daughter duo behind them. Jesse eyes Santa with narrowed eyes before firmly shaking his head.“No. We’ve waited here long enough—we’re getting a photo with Santa.”





	nightmare before christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pen99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pen99/gifts).



> My [McReyes Secret Snowflake](https://mcreyesgiftexchange.tumblr.com/) gift for [Pen99](http://pen99.tumblr.com/), who requested Gabe and Jesse meeting Santa at a shopping mall. Happy holidays! I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> A big thank you to [Kaimera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaimera/pseuds/Kaimera) for beta reading!

The mall is _packed_. It’s the week before Christmas, so that probably stands to reason, but it doesn’t mean Gabe likes it any more. He’s never been one for crowds, would have been perfectly happy to do his Christmas shopping online like he does _every other year_ , but Ana had wanted to take Fareeha and Jesse had wanted to tag along and Gabriel just had to go with them, because only God knows what Jesse McCree might get up to armed with a credit card. So here he is, laden with shopping bags, wading through groups of people packed together like sardines in a tin.

Since when did people get to be so _rude_ anyway? Nobody seems to give any consideration to anyone around them, going about their business without giving a thought to if they’re inconveniencing anybody. They stand in front of storefronts, blocking displays while they gossip, or they walk straight at you so that you have to duck around them at the last minute. It’s a nightmare, everything Gabriel hates about this time of year, and quite frankly he’s looking forward to heading back to base and taking a nap. 

But his hopes are dashed when Ana spots the photo stall in the middle of the corridor. 

It’s one of those places where you take your children to have their picture taken with Santa, where you sit your child on a strange man’s lap and have them tell him what they want to get under the Christmas tree. Gabriel doesn’t even notice it, but Ana stops dead still, places a hand on his arm and declares with a fierce kind of determination, “Fareeha is going to have her picture taken.”

Everything is silent for one moment, two, three. Then everyone starts talking at once. 

“I’m fourteen. I don’t want to have my picture taken with Santa!” 

“Have you seen how long that line is?

“We still have so much shopping left to do!”

But Ana has already left, not paying them the slightest bit of attention. 

The queue is _long_ , filled with weary parents trying to wrangle bored, screaming children into line, and then there is Ana at the very end, head held high, steeled against her friends’ (and child’s) complaints. Begrudgingly, the others join her. There’s no point trying to convince Ana Amari of anything when she has already made her mind up. So, they wait.

_And wait._

After a good ten minutes they only seem to have moved forward a foot, and Ana seems to be feeling a little more sympathetic. “You can go on,” she says, offering Jesse and Gabriel an apologetic smile (and clamping her hand firmly on Fareeha’s shoulder). “We’ll catch up with you.” 

“Oh, thank God,” Gabriel hears Jesse mutter under his breath, for which he’s shot a sharp look, but Gabriel is definitely not going to pass up the opportunity to escape from this nightmare. 

“We’ll meet you back here when we’ve finished the rest of our shopping,” says Gabriel, to which Ana nods her assent. He’s ready to leave, linking Jesse’s arm with his own, when Jesse leans down and places a hand on Fareeha’s shoulder in solidarity.

“Be strong,” he whispers, and Gabe hauls him away before his boyfriend’s big mouth can get either of them into any more trouble.

 

* * *

 

While the Amaris are otherwise occupied, Jesse and Gabe make use of their hard won freedom to shop for them. For Ana, they purchase a beautiful blown glass tea set picked out in blues and golds, which is way over budget, but once Gabe spots it, he just can’t leave it there. Fareeha gets the latest first person shooter from Blizzard Entertainment, though Gabe suspects it’s partially a gift for Jesse himself. He can picture it already, the two of them on the floor of the rec room, taking turns to beat each other’s scores. The thought makes him smile. 

It’s not until they’re poring over what to get for Genji that Gabe gets the text. 

_**Amari:** Fareeha needs bathroom. Will you hold our place?_

“Oh no,” Gabe murmurs. 

Jesse looks over from where he is examining novelty mugs (the one he’s chosen for Genji reads in bold black lettering, ‘Fart Ninja - Silent But Deadly’), brow cocked. “Oh no, what?” 

“Oh no, Ana needs us to hold her place in line.” 

“They’re still waiting?” Jesse asks, incredulous. “Christ, why would anyone want to stand around that damn long to get their kid’s picture taken with someone who don’t even exist?” 

Gabriel smiles wryly. “Something strange happens to your brain when you have a kid. C’mon.” 

They return to the kiosk to find Ana and Fareeha nearing the front of the line. “Thank you, Gabriel,” Ana says with a resigned sincerity as Gabe and Jesse slip into place and they hurry off in the direction of the nearest bathroom. 

So, once again, they wait. 

And they wait. 

And they _wait_ , all the while inching closer and closer to the front of the queue, where the man dressed as Santa poses for the camera and the child on his lap screams in fright and the young woman taking the pictures cries, “Say cheese,” and the camera shutters. The longer they stand there, the longer Ana and Fareeha have been gone, and the closer they get to the festive little photograph kiosk, until it seems like they aren’t coming back at all and this has all been some elaborate trick. 

“We should let them go first,” Gabe says quietly, tilting his head back to indicate the father and daughter duo behind them. Jesse eyes Santa with narrowed eyes before firmly shaking his head. 

“No. We’ve waited here long enough—we’re getting a photo with Santa.” 

“What?” Gabe whips around to face him, shocked laughter already bubbling up in his chest. “Are you serious?” 

“I’m serious.” Jesse gives Gabe the most sincere look he can possibly manage from under the brim of his Stetson, which definitely dampens the effect. When Gabe doesn’t appear to be convinced, he takes on a more pleading tone. “C’mon, Gabe, we’ve been here for so long already. It’ll be funny. Please? It can be your Christmas present to me.” 

Gabe’s dubious gaze flicks from his boyfriend to Santa and back again, and finds that he doesn’t have it in him to say no to Jesse’s request. 

“Fine,” he says, albeit begrudgingly, and the smile that breaks across Jesse’s face makes it all worth it. “But this stays between us.” 

“You bet!” 

Together, they step up to the cashier, a bored-looking teenager dressed up as one of Santa’s little helpers. He looks at them, glances down as if expecting to find a child at their feet, looks back up at them, his expression turning suspicious. “Can I help you?” 

“We’d like to have our photo taken,” Gabe replies, and as idiotic as it sounds, the cashier’s attitude irritates him. Jesse laughs and settles a hand on the small of Gabe’s back. 

“You want to— Are you serious?” 

Gabe doesn’t reply, instead producing his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans. “How much?” 

The cashier names the price—thirty dollars, which, as far as Gabe is concerned, is highway robbery—and Gabe swipes his card, and they share an awkward moment in which the cashier looks as though he expects Gabe to change his mind, but then the payment is approved and they’re waved into the little cordoned off area and there’s no backing down now. And there, sprawled lazily in the tinselled throne, is Santa, looking for all the world like he would like to be anywhere else. 

Gabe takes a deep, steadying breath and strides up to him, Jesse following doggedly behind. 

Santa, too, is taken aback by the apparent absence of a child. He looks between the two of them as they approach with a blank, uncomprehending expression, until Gabe stops awkwardly in front of him and he realises with a look of dawning horror that these two, thickly muscled men expect to perch on his knees. 

“Uh—” he begins, but before Santa can protest, Jesse has pushed in front and is laying his hand on his shoulder, nudging his legs open with a knee and planting himself firmly in Santa’s lap. He looks up at Gabe and pats Santa’s unoccupied thigh. “C’mon, sugar. All yours.” 

Gabe hesitates for only half a second before joining the cowboy. Santa grunts under their combined weight. 

“Say cheese!” the girl manning the camera calls and she can’t keep the laughter out of her voice. 

 

* * *

 

It’s a still a good half hour before Ana comes blustering back with an equally angry looking Fareeha in tow. They’ve fought; it’s something that’s becoming increasingly common the older Fareeha gets, but it’s still an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. Gabriel stands to greet her, his irritated quip at having had to wait for so long dying in his throat when he sees her expression. Ana is fierce at the best of times, and she’s downright _scary_ when she’s angry; even Gabriel is unwilling to cross her.

“Fareeha decided that she didn’t _want_ to have her picture taken. She sneaked out of the restroom to hide in Hot Topic.” Now, to Fareeha, “You could have just _told me_.”

“I did!” Fareeha retorts, but Ana ignores her.

“We spent all that time waiting in line for nothing! And I spent twice that looking for her. She didn’t answer my calls—doesn’t have her phone, she says. Have you _ever_ seen Fareeha without her phone glued to her hand?”

She’s going to go on, but Jesse raises a hand to stop her. 

“For what it’s worth, Ma’am,” Jesse interjects; Ana turns that terrible gaze on him, but he continues bravely. “It wasn’t for nothing.”

He holds out the little folder the cashier had given him, the photograph tucked inside, and Gabriel watches Ana take it, absolutely mortified. Ana’s brow furrows when she flips it open. Then, her mouth falls open.

“Oh,” she says, as if she can’t quite believe what she’s seeing, and Gabriel can’t quite believe that Jesse would so easily sell him out like this, so the amazement is mutual. But the crease between Ana’s brows disappears, all the tension melts from her shoulders and she grins. “Oh, this is _wonderful_.”

She flips the folder around for all of them to see, as if it’s something that she’s discovered, as if Gabe hasn’t spent the last thirty minutes agonising over _why he did that_. In the picture, Jesse is reclining on one of Santa’s knees, one hand tipping the brim of his hat up to show a cheeky smirk. Gabriel is perched on the other, but despite the discomfort strung across his frame, he’s actually smiling at the camera, a rare and candid sight. Between them, Santa is flushed red in consternation.

“You never smile in photos Gabriel!” Ana chastises him, though all the heat has gone out of her voice, “How did Jesse manage to convince you to smile in this one?”

Gabe flushes and offers an awkward shrug, but Ana doesn’t seem to be expecting him to answer anyway; she’s shaking her head, chuckling quietly to herself. Over her shoulder, Jesse waggles his brows at him. 

“Oh,” Ana repeats, “You’re right, Jesse. It wasn’t for nothing at all. I hope you know, we’re pinning this up in the rec room.”

“What?” Gabe cries. “No!” 

“Too late! This is mine now, Commander.”


End file.
